Permafrost Diplomacy
by Eyowyn
Summary: It has been two years since the Ionian rematch against Noxus, and Ionia is stronger than ever. Karma's tireless efforts on behalf of her country have finally resulted in the peace she has been dreaming of since the slaughter of her village at the beginning of the invasion. Yet, even as newer and stranger entities emerge in Ionia, trouble stirs far to the west…in Freljord. Hiatused.
1. Decorum

**Hi guys! Welcome to the beginning of Permafrost Diplomacy, a tale of reworked Karma and the new Freljord lore.**

**I am going to be taking a lot of inspiration from Hinduism for the story, as I feel Karma and her mantras deserve. The chakras mentioned in this chapter are Sahasrara, the Crown Chakra; Ajna, the Brow Chakra; Vishuddha, the Throat Chakra; and Anahata, the Heart Chakra. Go visit the Wikipedia page on chakras if you want to learn more about them and what they represent!**

**I offer my thanks to AerithRayne, who I've been enjoying talking to for the past few weeks in her League of Legends forum thread, and who made me want to place a story solely on Valoran. **

**Enjoy!**

Part One: The Duchess

Chapter 1: Decorum

Breath. Stable and grounding. Living air, light, entering the body, flushing out toxins in exhale, releasing negativity, rooting the self in the now, offering stability, focus, clarity.

Sometimes breath could be the only thing that could be relied on. For the last fifteen years, her breath had come in three beats. Inhale, one. The Noxian invasion. Two. The resistance. Three. The Zaunites. Exhale, one. The Great Stand of the Placidium. Two. The Trial for the Isle. Three. The Rematch.

Three was neither too fast nor two slow. It calmed her heart but permitted exertion. It centered her. It was something she could control, that she could depend on. Her breath and her will could not be disrupted.

If they were, then she was defenseless.

In the months before, she had her fans. But the antiques had never been meant for the use she put them to, and they had grown fragile. For fear of breaking them, she no longer manipulated blades of will she hid between the folds. Instead, she kept them hidden in her dress, for comfort and for state appearances, and, as only she knew, to use at her last stand.

Karma breathed steadily as she walked through the short grass of the center lane of Summoner's Rift, a gentle hum emanating from the light of her will that kept her Mantle of Decorum aloft behind her head. Her hair was held back by three metal rings, perfectly in order, a dark glistening red beneath the warmth of the sun.

"All is in accordance," she murmured, and began, without any sort of hurry, a series of languid movements with her arms and legs. She stood up straight, her arms at her sides, with the backs of her hands up, and closed her eyes. Then she placed both of her palms together, her fingers pointing towards the sky, in front of her chest, while shifting her weight to one leg and bending the other until her foot pressed above her knee. Slowly, she lifted her arms, raising her clasped hands towards the sky as she opened her eyes. Behind her, the hum intensified, the light of her will starting to blaze as her heart slowed and slowed in its beats and tranquility settled over her like armor. When her arms were straight over her head, she let her lips curve into a smile and slowly brought her arms back to her sides and her foot back to the ground.

As she completed her exercises, tiny blue minions started to wend their way around her, trotting their way towards the purple side, and she heard the robotic voice of Orianna command, "ravage."

She took a breath and started forwards, murmuring "_gayah nah kereh be"_ in Old Ionian. The words sharpened the world to crystal clarity. Karma raised an elegant hand and pointed towards Orianna who was standing just outside her purple minions, throwing spiked gears into the blue ranks. Her Ball had shot into the rushes on one side of the river and was barely visible as a gleam of metal.

Karma focused and the skin on her hand started to tingle as her will coalesced around it like a shining glove. Her duty sung within her.

She released it and it shot forwards, flaring the iridescent green of a butterfly's wing as it slammed into Orianna's plated chest. The Clockwork Lady stumbled, briefly falling to her knees as she frantically rewound the key on her back.

Karma let her long sleeves fall forwards to cover her hands as her will erupted from the earth beneath Orianna in a sheet of pale flame. With a horrible crunching, popping sound, Orianna's framework collapsed, twisted irreparably, before the light of summoning whisked her away.

The Enlightened One watched calmly until her enemy had firmly disappeared and then began to summon knives of spirit into her hands, each which she held between two fingers before pointing at an enemy minion and watching as the translucent blades shot unerringly through their hoods.

Her thoughts were elsewhere.

"We are finally, finally certain that no traces of the Noxian occupation forces remain," Irelia sighed a month before Karma's match, her huge blade drooping behind her. The dark circles under the young woman's eyes looked like they'd been carved there.

"Excellent," Karma said briskly, tapping the handle of one of her elegant fans against the table. They were in one of the offices in the Placidium, a room paneled with dark wood with troughs full of trickling water on each side. In the center was a table with a great map of Ionia, with three great squares carved into the wood on the side. Within these squares lay a multitude of tiny flags. The top square held velvet flags, representing Noxian forces—all of these had been returned to the square from the pinholes in the map. The middle square's flags were swatches of rose silk, representing villages where order had been restored, and only a few of them were left off the map. The bottom square held what concerned them now.

Within, were three jet black flags.

Irelia reached over and plucked one out, placing in in the center of the islet of Shon-Xan.

"The Pit of Pallas," she said gravely. Karma, her face expressionless, scooped up a second and placed it on the furthest edge of Ionia's most remote northwestern island.

"The Order of Shadow," Karma murmured.

Irelia's blade darted forwards, separating into innumerable tiny blade that whirred over the last flag like a swarm of biting flies. They speared through it and lifted it above the main island of Ionia.

"The Celestial Fortress," Irelia spat. Karma blinked slowly, feeling weariness seep over her.

"We should leave Syndra for last. She is a rebellious child, full of sound and fury, but she will do little harm to our people as she troubles with herself," the Duchess said calmly, resting a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"She's missing," Irelia said heavily. "No one's seen her fortress in the last two weeks. Who knows what she might be up to?"

Karma squeezed lightly before she let her hands fall back to her sides, her dark eyes as calm as the Placidium's reflecting pool. On her next exhale, she sent her spirit out with her breath, letting it expand through the whole island of Ionia in the briefest moment. The untroubled lives of many of the villagers appeared to her as bright flames in a pale sea, untroubled aside from two shadows on the water's surface, both in the places she expected them to be. But Irelia was right. Syndra was missing.

Karma focused. She inhaled and her spirit rushed back to her, invigorating her with the will of her people. One, two, three…and she reached out again, looking for even the smallest disturbance. Nothing. The sea was a sheet, untroubled by waves—no! She saw something. A tiny ripple, leading off to the west. It was so small it look like the mere parting of the waters by a child's finger. She strained the reach of her senses, following it until the strength of her homeland began to falter. The ripple grew the further west she went, until at the furthest edge of her perception she could see it touch the land.

Karma gasped and grabbed her fan tightly in her hand. Her will was wavering and the effort of looking so far shot terrible pain down her spine, through the centers of her chakra. But she had one last thing to look for.

She looked down at the ripple and descended to the pale ocean's surface, squinting at it for even the smallest of clues. Her eyes burned and distantly she felt tears begin to roll down her cheeks, smearing the red teardrops just below her lashes. But there was something floating, just there…she reached out for it and felt a tremor run through her body.

Karma sighed regretfully and pulled her spirit back, back to the room behind the Placidium. Irelia gasped and reached for her as she smiled briefly, wiping away the blood trickling from her nose with her sleeve.

"Syndra went west, Irelia, and into Valoran," Karma said firmly, looking her friend in the eye.

Then she fainted, her decorum collapsing with her legs, and felt Irelia's strong arms hook under hers before the black consumed her.

When she woke, it was under the stern gaze of Soraka.

"What were you thinking, Karma?" she hissed. "Seconds more, and your efforts would have destroyed your mind. Your will is not strong enough to sustain your body through cerebral hemorrhage!"

Karma, her chin tilted upwards slightly, shook her head. "No, Starchild. As long as my will remains, I will not falter. I did not wish to risk a longer recovery period just for a small piece of additional information, however, so I returned to my body. It shouldn't be more than a few days, correct?"

"I'm tempted to keep you here for a month!" Soraka snapped. "You can't risk yourself like this, Duchess! If you continue to overextend your spirit, you _will_ exhaust yourself and you _will_ die!"

"I do what is necessary," Karma said, her face blank of anything but the implacable dignity in her eyes. Delicately, she reached up and felt expertly at pulse points. Soraka sighed in disgust and placed a strong blue hand on her brow.

"Rest, Duchess. Ionia can survive without you for another day or so. Irelia's already sending out messengers to ask if any of the coastal villages saw the Celestial Fortress. We'll find out where Syndra's gone while you recover," she said, a warm pulse of golden light racing down her arm and into Karma's head. The Enlightened One did not sigh or smile at the touch of healing. Instead, she asked, "does anyone know I am here? Does anyone know I fainted?"

"No, Duchess," Soraka said. "Irelia brought you to me by the back ways. I left word that I was discussing matters with you and that we were not to be disturbed."

Karma listened quietly, then smiled and laid her head back on her pillow, her short red hair in a messy pool around her, free from its restraining rings. "I will rest, Soraka," she said gratefully, and closed her eyes. Soraka gently brushed her hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ears. The Starchild reached over for a basin of warm water and a cloth, then set to gently scrubbing Karma's face. Under her tender hands, the scarlet teardrops and their black outlines disappeared.

Soraka sent another pulse of healing into Karma's temples and felt her charge relax into peaceful sleep, curling up on herself. The Starchild brought the coverlets up and patted them down around her.

Karma looked so young and gentle when she slept, a mere child, unfit for war. Without the armor of her unbreakable will, she seemed so fragile that Soraka could hardly bear to let her go back out to fight.

The Starchild reached down and held the Duchess' hand as she slept, singing a soft lullaby of no language that Valoran had ever known.

"She went to Freljord?" Karma asked, a tiny furrow in her smooth brow. Irelia nodded, her blade dipping down as well.

"All reports agree that the Celestial Fortress was spotted on the northern horizon from the Piltover border with the Ironspike Mountains," Irelia repeated.

"What would she want with Freljord?" Karma murmured, reaching up unconsciously to make sure she could still feel the paint of her teardrops. They were an excellent conduit of her chakra, unifying Sahasrara, Ajna, and Vishuddha for clarity of thought, purity of spirit, and lucidity of expression. She could not believe that Soraka had washed them from her face. She had felt uncertain of herself ever since she had looked in a mirror and seen them missing.

"Whatever it is, I will find out," Irelia said grimly, her blade flexing and expanding.

"You can't go after her now, Irelia," Karma soothed, "first we must tend to the Pit of Pallas and the Order of Shadows. We can't leave them to fester on Ionia's heart. Syndra will keep in the north until we are ready for her."

"Not 'we'," Irelia said quietly, her face shadowed. Karma looked up at her in surprise, clutching her fans.

"You cannot think to go alone?" she said, startled.

"I will summon the Kinkou to assist me," Irelia said, looking at Karma with a particular ferocity in her eyes, "but you will be returning to the Institute, Duchess Karma."

Karma's features remained untroubled, but the uncertainty that had been niggling at her return with a fury.

"Why?" she asked, her composure seemingly unruffled.

"Your powers increase every day, Duchess, but you're too reckless with them," Irelia said haltingly, a faint flush on her cheeks. "You work yourself to death every day and night and I haven't heard you laugh or seen you really smile for weeks. They call me the Will of the Blades but your will is greater than any weapon. Go back to the Institute. Rest. Train. Be untroubled for a little while. Without you, there would be no Ionia. We don't want to lose you."

Karma looked at her steadily, without a quiver. "If that is the will of the Elders," she acquiesced gracefully, bowing her perfectly coiffed head.

Without another word, she left.

As the last of the purple minions fell, she heard a horrible, slavering roar and flicked her gaze up to the riverside. With a wave of her hand her spirit hardened in front of her, just before Warwick launched himself out of the shadows, his claws extended towards her face, and slammed into solid air.

"I will feed on you, Ionian!" he raged as a thin rope of pale green energy looped around his throat, sending tendrils down to his feet. Quickly, but calmly—always calmly—Karma retreated to her tower, her breaths leaving more forcefully as Warwick slashed at her shield. Before it could break, her questing spirit found a weakness in his animal mind and paralyzed him with indecision just as they reached the range of her turret. Karma seconded its mindless blast of energy with a flare of will burning into his chest. Warwick yelped and fled, his fur blackened and bloody.

Karma leaned against the cool stone base of the turret and watched without emotion as Lee Sin's shout caught Warwick before he could vanish and the Blind Monk put him down with a vicious palm to his neck.

"I hope you are not injured, Duchess," he called, and Karma gave a rare, unguarded smile—mostly because she knew he could not see it.

"I am well, thank you Lee," she replied, and murmured a farewell as he bowed and leapt back into the jungle.

Her time of inactivity (as she would call it) in the Institute of War had not been entirely fruitless, but she was growing weary of being separated from her beloved homeland. She wanted to know how Irelia's efforts to lockdown the area around the Pit of Pallas were succeeded. She wanted to see the barrier wards put up around the northwest island herself and see if they were as resilient as her will. She wanted to travel north by carriage and baggage train and see what damage Syndra had done in Freljord, and repair it with her own careful words and promises.

Freljord…there were murmurs of great unrest there, here and there in the League. Trundle's tribe had risen to new and dangerous prominence, coming close to the border of Ashe's lands, and the barbarians were restless with peace. Sejuani and her allies had consolidated their power and were burning farmland and slaughtering herds every day. The tenuous stability Ashe had worked for all her life was collapsing in ashes around her feet.

Karma suspected that there was something more behind it, and her suspicions rested on Syndra. A powerful, malign force was pushing against the boundaries of peace in Freljord.

Should that force be Ionian in origin, the implications for her homeland would be dire.

But Karma revealed none of this worry on her face or in her words. She was calm, implacable, dignified, noble. She was the very image of Ionia.

Until Irelia told her she was no longer required to be passive, then she would wait, and find grace in patience. She let her feelings of rejection flow smoothly through Anahata and be transformed into tranquility.

Orianna reappeared in the distance, and Karma straightened up, her eyes shielded once more.


	2. Poise

**I must include a warning for extremely mild not at all successful attempted rape. If that's triggering for you, skip until after the section break.  
**

**Within are mentioned two Hindu hells, Puyoda and Taptasurmi, and the chakras Anahata, the Heart Chakra; and Swadisthana, the Sacral Chakra.**

**Enjoy!**

Chapter 2: Poise

It was late in the game and team fights were fast and furious. Karma managed to stay on the outskirts, observing the proper time to rend the earth and air with the power of her will. She could feel her energies blazing brightly as they flowed through the channels of her chakra, unblocked by hesitation. She swiftly shaped a shield around cold-eyed Sejuani as the woman roared and urged her boar into the thick of the conflict, then flicked a line of spirit power straight into Ashe's chest. The Frost Archer, her face grim as she shot arrow after arrow into the fray, winced as Karma's will battered relentlessly against hers. Ashe's devotion to Freljord burned almost as brightly as her hatred for Sejuani, but Karma was skilled in such conflicts of the mind, and she swiftly located the queen's fear of her husband. She pulled it to the forefront and Ashe nearly dropped her bow as her feet suddenly refused to obey her. With a gruff laugh of triumph, Sejuani slammed her mace into the archer's body and Ashe crumpled, the look of betrayal in her eyes shooting a pang of unease through Karma.

The Enlightened One sighed and murmured another mantra before gesturing gracefully into the very heart of the fight. The missile of her will exploded in the middle, dazing those of her enemies with less conviction than her, and so embroiled were they in the fight that they could not run out of the eruption that followed the blast.

The enemy team broke and ran and Karma sent a surge of inspiration after her teammates as they chased after them, loosening tired muscles and giving new energy. Then she leaned heavily against a nearby tree, feeling her weariness press down on her.

"I smell your fear, Karma!" Warwick howled, and his heavy, hairy body crashed into hers. Karma, caught off guard, was thrown to the ground before she could summon a shield of will, and Warwick's claws dug into her arms and legs, pinning her. Her dark eyes flashed at the pain, but she did not cry out. A silvery veil fell over her body, forcing him away from her and with a mantra in her mind she attacked his spirit, draining his will to power hers. But the Night Hunter simply grabbed her shoulders and bashed her head against the ground savagely.

Her shield weakened for a moment before it tightened around her like a second skin, harder than iron, steel, or mithril.

"I'll rob you of your dignity before you die," Warwick snarled, and slashed her from her collarbone to her waist. Karma bit her lip as her dress split open and her shirt under it, and Warwick chuckled, grabbing her by the throat and lifting her up until her clothes fell to her waist. She ignited the air around her in verdant flames and he screamed in pain, his fur smoking as she tore at his spirit with her power, but he continued to try and tear at her body. Her shield's reach was weakened by the oppressive influence of Atala, which smothered her will in fear and shame, and did not stop him from ripping the remnants of her clothes off of the upper half of her body. Karma felt his life begin to fade and sent thousands of daggers of spirit power shooting up from her bare skin. His blood splattered off her shield as he snagged his claws into her clothes at her waist.

Karma was preparing herself to blind the spectators when she heard a shout and was thrown to the ground by a shockwave. She looked up to see Warwick smash into a tree and Lee Sin, scarlet tongues of dragon flame coursing down his legs, dive after him and shatter his sternum with a vicious punch.

"Duchess," the blind monk said, turning away from Warwick as the werewolf groaned and was whisked away by summoning light. Karma drew her knees up to her chest and realized that she was shuddering, though her shield had never wavered.

Lee Sin tilted his head, listening to the harshness of her breathing, then ran to her, his feet barely touching the grass, and knelt at her side. Without another word, he reached up and untied his blindfold, then reached out and tied it tenderly around her chest without touching her with his hands.

Karma did not trust herself to speak, but she reached out and brushed his scarred cheek with her thumb, letting her shield fade.

"Worry not," Lee Sin whispered, scooping Karma into his arms and standing without even appearing to notice her weight. She leaned her head against his chest and closed her eyes.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "I was taken unawares."

"It is my honor to assist you, Duchess," he said, jogging across the river and back to safe territory. "I am certain I merely hastened Warwick's defeat, however."

Karma appreciated how carefully he held his arms around her, to support her without any sort of intimacy. It was as gracious as typical with him.

Her composure never wavering, she let the warmth of his body soothe away the remainder of her fear and began the slow process of unblocking chakras that had been weakened by her loss of control. Where the spectators could not see, her friend rubbed gentle circles into the back of her neck, humming softly so he could maneuver around the foliage of the blue jungle.

"I am well now," she said stiffly, appreciating the gesture but beginning to feel slightly uncomfortable in her position. Lee Sin let her down with utmost care and she gathered herself up, her eyes flashing and her chin held up proudly.

Unbeknownst to her, Orianna stood, out of sight, her spidery fingers stroking the surface of the Ball and watching them. As Karma gathered her poise and stature and began the motions signaling her summoner to recall her to base, the Clockwork Lady twitched erratically against the compulsion to attack.

"No," Orianna chirped softly, "we feel-pity. The game-should have-been stopped. We will-not attack."

The intangible presence in her programming seethed in anger, but Orianna continued to watch until Karma was safely back behind the blue nexus before she too recalled.

* * *

Both Sejuani and Lee Sin went after Warwick with a particular single minded viciousness for the rest of the game. Sejuani even ignored Ashe.

It embarrassed Karma. She needed no one to defend her but the strength of her spirit. Though no blood reddened her cheeks, Sejuani pulled her aside when they were destroying the enemy Nexus and growled gruffly, "get over yourself, Duchess. Women have to stick together, you know that."

"I claim no extra privilege because of my gender," Karma replied stiffly. "Warwick shall die one day and then he shall go to Puyoda and swim in filth forever or burn in Taptasurmi as he deserves, and that shall be his punishment. I am defender not defenseless, leader of the Winter's Claw."

Sejuani grunted disdainfully and kicked her boar away from Karma.

The Enlightened One gathered energy into the palm of her hand and let it flow around Lee Sin as he hurled Warwick into the Nexus crystal. The werewolf's claws scrabbled helplessly at the Blind Monk's body, slipping off Karma's spirit, and with a grunt Lee Sin slammed his fist down onto his chest and shattered both the Nexus and his body.

Lee Sin leapt back, adjusting his blindfold around his eyes. He now wore one of simple brown cloth, having rejected Karma's offer to return his previous wrapping. Her summoner had magically repaired her robes once she had recalled, and thus she no longer had need of his gracious gift, but he had murmured something about "impurity" and left it at that. Karma was not offended and had left it tied around her waist as a sash. The ways of the Shojin were nearly as strict as her own personal practices.

She relaxed as the blue light of summoning enveloped her and the rest of the champions, and in moments they were back in the cool halls of the Institute. A heavy animal smell filled the air and brilliant green fire blazed around Karma as she shielded herself, only to be filled with renewed shame when she recognized Udyr, his golden eyes filled with flames.

"We mean you no harm, Duchess," he growled, storming by her in a pelt of scarlet feathers and reaching into the mass of departing champions to grab Warwick by the throat.

"The summoners desire to see you, unworthy one," the beast man snarled, and Warwick bowed his head, giving Karma a hateful glance. She looked at him, let her majesty and dignity shine, and at last he bowed his head, growling spitefully under his breath.

Karma smiled slightly and tucked her hands into her sleeves, smoothing her hair back into obedience with a feather light touch of will. The Noxian invasion had not broken her. The Zaunites' chemical weapons had not burned her. No mere man could shatter her will, even if he was a monster.

She set off into one of the corridors leading to the Ionian wing and was quite a ways along it when Lee Sin caught up to her.

"Duchess," he said gravely, "are you certain you are well?"

"I am no fragile maiden," Karma said wryly, "and I died only four times for my thirteen kills."

He tapped her chin lightly and Karma was tempted by the incredibly childish and unfitting urge to stick her tongue out at him. She relented slightly. Lee Sin would not judge her for a betrayal of poise.

"I am comfortable being naked in the baths," she continued quietly, "but the idea of having spectators leering at my body troubles me. It weakens me in their eyes, makes me more woman than leader. I do not exist for pleasure, Lee, I exist for leadership."

"The summoners cut off spectating the moment they realized what Warwick was doing," Lee Sin murmured. "Your dignity remains intact, my Duchess."

Karma sighed gratefully, smiling at him even though she knew he could not see it.

"Thank you again," she said. "You were gallant to aid me. If I had lost control of my emotions, I would have needed your assistance."

"My Duchess never loses control of her emotions," Lee Sin said merrily.

"Of course not," Karma agreed, squaring her shoulders proudly until she noticed Lee Sin chuckling. Indignant, she tossed a thread of spirit energy around his head and pushed her will into contact with his, intending to disquiet him with the sheer force of it.

Instead, emotion surged up from within her and she pressed a hand to her chest at the feeling of intense _loneliness_, suddenly torn to the surface of her mind from deep within as the mass of flames that was Lee Sin's soul touched the questing stream of her spirit.

What was worse was that he could feel it too.

"Karma, Karma," he said instantly, "I love you, Irelia loves you, your people love you, you are not alone."

With a sharp movement of her hand, she severed the connection between them.

"You tell truth but there is a lie within it," she said sharply, searing away the weakness in Anahata, and the Blind Monk stepped back, expressionless.

"Shojin monks do not lie," he said stiffly.

"Deny your desires and you weaken Swadisthana," she warned him. "If you cannot subsume them in duty as I have, then fulfill them and strengthen your chakra."

"In pain I have found freedom from such things," Lee Sin said, no longer friendly. "Good evening, Duchess."

"Good evening," Karma said, and stood aside until the corridor until he was gone.

She sat on the cold stone floor and adjusted her limbs until they permitted the freest flow of spirit before she entered a meditative trance, her consciousness dissolved into a calm sea.

There she remained until the sun rose and the agony in her bones and muscles purged her frailty, and it was time to rise and seek what sustenance she could find to sustain her through the day.


	3. Sangfroid

**I have had just crazy fun playing with everyone in game. Shout outs to AerithRayne, Mr Ratz, Cerubois, and Grand Viper for some awesome 3v3s and 5v5s. Also thank you to my Guest for correcting my mistake with Warwick and Blueberry Absinthe for telling me I'm awesome :D**

**There is explanation of several of the chakras within the chapter, so I shan't list which ones are here. You all should thank Blue for telling me to stop making you look this stuff up.**

**I'm also excited to announce that Grand Viper will be writing some of Part Two and Three with me for his champion, Gelid Wolfrik, whose champion concept you should read in the League of Legends Fan Fiction and Champion Concept forums.**

**With that out of the way, enjoy!**

Chapter 3: Sangfroid

Choosing a meal required a great deal of thought and planning at the Institute. Because of the huge variety of champions, there were truly spectacular spreads laid out for breakfast, lunch, tea, and dinner.

There were three distinct areas.

The first, for those who had lost their humanity entirely or who never had it to begin with, was at the very back of the room, in the shadow of a snarling gargoyle. One bar was filled with slimy chunks of green meat, fresh spider eggs, and grave dirt steamed with human blood. Next to it was simply a long basin of violently glowing purple liquid that occasionally sprouted eyes on long tentacles to survey the room. On a small table to the side was a selection of brightly colored vials, each containing a different type of toxin.

The second, situated just in front of the first, catered to those with the most esoteric tastes. A selection of broiled gears in fine oil was side by side with a book of every genre. Flasks of blood with delicate necks were scattered around deep bowls of fresh snow and smoking ashes. Young, freshly caught birds flapped feebly in cages to purvey to Cassiopeia. There were several trays of gemstones and more common rocks. A huge indent contained fresh soil from Demacian forests. Two wells flanked the section, one of pure, roiling darkness, and the other of searing, dripping light. Behind it was a medium sized Nexus crystal for those that fed on magic alone.

The third and the largest area, at the front of the dining hall, was for those with more normal human tastes. There were three tables for meat, fish, and fowl. Ionian grains nestled with Freljord's winter wheat in huge bowls. Loaves of wheat and rye bread walled in a bar with dishes of peppers, pasta, salad, rice, and soup. A steaming array of breakfast pastries, strudels, muffins, and bagels formed a fragrant mountain near the dining hall door, surrounded by bananas, strawberries, cherries, and apples.

There were discrete odor-blocking runes on the floor around the first two sections, but not around the third, and the warm scents that drifted from the third area had made many new champions stop in their battle-hardened tracks.

Karma always paused, a smile in her eyes if not on her mouth, when she walked through the door.

There was very little happiness she allowed in her life. Her friends were not exactly normal. Her family had died with her childhood. For the last ten years of her life, she had been fighting, preparing, protecting, negotiating. For many of those years, she had endured the exhausting path to awakening her chakras…

* * *

_ Sahasrara, the Crown Chakra, representative of inner wisdom and the freedom of the soul from the body. She felt it, pulsing a brilliant, blinding white, pounding at the very top of her skull. With agonizing slowness, she had been painting, for seven nights and seven days, a lotus flower with a thousand perfect petals—the symbol of Sahasrara. Karma felt like she was floating above her body, forcing her fingers to move the brush by will alone. She was connected to the earth by the slimmest thread._

_ She had not eaten or drunk or slept in all that time._

_While she painted, she sent her soul sense out, watching over Ionia as the rebuilding efforts began in the southern provinces. She watched Lee Sin, speaking with the master of his monastery. She watched Irelia, weeping softly beneath a cherry tree. She flew over Udyr as he dragged carcass after carcass back to hungry workers raising a new shrine at a lakeside. She was her land and she felt its life beat within her, quickening as her heart slowed and slowed…_

_She had never pushed it out so far from her body before and hope quickened in her as she raced towards the furthest shore of Ionia. The flow of her chakra down from Sahasrara began to quicken and the light grew brighter and brighter…_

_Her fingers stilled halfway through the last petal as her heart stopped beating, but she still had her powers, and with a wisp of energy she drew a delicate curve and completed the lotus._

_And the chakra __**burned**__ silver and she cried out as magic shot down her spine and restarted her heart…_

* * *

_Ajna, the Brow Chakra, who held power over intuition, fought against her as she fought against Lee Sin, a bandage over her eyes but her breathing one, two, three steady. He was so quick and she could only stumble backwards to avoid his blows, though they were so light when they touched her that they felt more like a caress than an attack._

"_Extend your senses!" he cried, and the sole of his foot brushed her cheek as she covered her fists in energy and struck at him with a knife hand. She could find only air._

_But she was listening, learning, her soul sense filling the room. She felt the air in his lungs like it was in her own. She could feel the warmth of his skin like the heat of an open fire. His heart was a steady drum. And slowly…slowly she saw him, a dancing golden flame. She could peer into his soul and see it, beautiful, noble, but twisted and writhing within him, tormented by wicked, biting creatures of guilt, the spawn of Vitala, the negative chakra of anger and resentment in the leg. She wanted, with a fierceness that surprised her, to drive them out, to use her powers to force on him peace of mind. But it would not be right. So, instead, the next time he leapt at her, she surrounded the index finger of her right hand in her will and stopped his fist with the lightest touch._

_Then she looked within herself and saw Ajna relax from tense violet to a warm, welcoming indigo, and smiled._

"_Thank you, Lee," she said, removing the bandage delicately, and reaching out to grasp his hands…_

* * *

_She stood on the Placidium and cried out to the people, "Ionia accepts the offer of the Noxians! If we win, they shall leave Galrin, Navori, and Shon-Xan forever, and our island shall be at peace once more. But should we lose, then the southern provinces will be theirs, and a representative from their ranks will join the Elders in this sacred meeting place."_

_She felt the fear roll off them, and the turquoise light of Vishuddha the Throat Chakra, who gives clarity to the spoken word, filled her. _

"_Now we prove our courage!" she shouted, holding her hands up to the crowd. "There will be peace, no matter what the cost!"_

_And behind her an iridescent light began to grow, until it covered her shoulders arms in sparkling fire._

"_Look upon the fires of my belief!" she commanded. "Watch them burn! The flames may flicker, they may weaken, but they will never go out, because I will never give up! The Noxians may think they will have the victory again, but they are wrong. We will free our people, and none shall dare question our resolve! Do you see me now, people of Ionia? I am but a woman and a mortal, but my skin is iron and my will is steel, and I WILL NEVER BREAK OR BEND UNTIL IONIA IS FREE ONCE MORE!"_

_Her voice echoed from the mountains and from the valleys and there was silence for a breath until the roar of the crowd broke over her, and she paid no heed to the tears streaming down her cheeks._

"_Thank you, thank you," she chanted, folding her hands over her chest, feeling the warmth of verdant Anahata, the Heart Chakra, and the love of her people wash over her like the tide…_

* * *

…and the first four of the seven were still the strongest chakras within her. Still, despite the grief and the pain and the relentless scouring of weakness from her very soul, she still indulged in a few pleasures, and one of those was food.

She swept forwards in a swirl of white and black robes and cut neatly between Caitlyn and Vi, who were arguing over the last apple strudel. She selected two fresh rolls and a saucer of strawberry jam , grabbing a plate from the neat stand at the end of the line to put them on, and wove around the other champions getting breakfast to secure a light lettuce salad sprinkled liberally with sweet red peppers. With a gentle nudge, she snuck around Volibear, who was monopolizing the meat table, and chopped off a few slices of tuna with the knife on the board beside it to go on top of her salad. Then she made a break for the tables, muttering as she realized the size of the crowd around the utensils.

"If I may assist you, my Duchess," Lee Sin murmured, and she flinched when she noticed him standing in Volibear's shadow, holding a fork in one hand and a knife in the other. He flitted to her side and placed them both gently on her plate.

"Lee," she said softly. He touched her shoulder lightly and wove through the morning crowd to a table in the light of one of the great windows looking out on the Institute's gradens.

She followed silently, smoothing away the distress on her face. Lee Sin pulled out a chair for her and she thanked him graciously and sat in it in a smooth, elegant movement.

He sat across from her, leaning on the table with his elbows and seemingly regarding her.

Karma raised an eyebrow and cut of her rolls in half.

"I know you don't like to show weakness, my Duchess," he said quietly.

Her gaze sharpened slightly and she took knife and jam to the bread with vigor.

"I think we are friends, my Duchess, and if you were troubled by the judgment of Irelia and the Elders, you should have spoken to her about it. We were only worried about your health," he continued, "and wanted you to have a chance to relax and enjoy the peace you have brought us."

"Do you think I am incapable of assessing risk to myself?" Karma asked coldly, taking a precise bite of her roll with a snap of her teeth.

"Of course not, my Duchess," Lee Sin said, bowing his head respectfully. "But we care about you."

Karma sighed quietly before gathering some of her salad up with her fork and placing it in her mouth. Karma chewed silently for a moment, evaluating the shifts in her chakra, then swallowed.

"I apologize for my harshness with you, my friend," she said quietly. "I should not have linked our spirits, even in jest. I hope you will keep this revelation to yourself and allow me to deal with it myself."

"Of course, my Duchess," he said instantly, his scarred face creasing in a brilliant smile.

"And I will not tell dear Father Hisoka that his student has a very deeply buried desire for a wife," she finished, a slightly wicked light glinting in her eyes.

A red flush crept up the monk's neck for a moment before he busied himself with his own dish of rice and red beans.

"I am certain my Duchess is all the female companionship a monk could desire," Lee Sin muttered accusingly.

Karma smiled serenely and finished off her roll.

* * *

She had returned to her room and changed into a light orange sun dress for the day when frenzied knocking interrupted her as she was brushing out her short red hair. Karma set aside her metal bands and rose, smoothing down her dress and gathering her composure. She opened the door to see a young man, his eyes wild.

"Are you quite well?" she asked, drawing her will in around herself in case this turned out to be one of her more ardent fans.

"D-duchess!" the boy stammered. "Irelia needs your help!"

"Irelia?" she asked, her eyes flashing. With a sharp mental command her Mantle of Decorum flew from her dresser to hover behind her head.

"S-she's at the Pit of Pallas," he continued. "Varus has kidnapped at least a dozen children of Noxian and Ionian couples. He's got them trapped in th-that horrible place and Irelia can't get in. She needs you, Duchess."

"I am on my way," Karma said, reaching down to grasp his hands firmly. "Do not fear, child. He cannot keep them away from me."

Green fire blazed up around her body and her light dress was gone. In its place was her sturdy overcoat of black and white, with dark grey leggings and tunic beneath it and silver clasps with gems the color of Ionian cherry blossoms. The metal bands floated over from where she'd left them and settled into her hair.

"I am ready," she said, the red teardrops beneath her eyes beginning to glow with inner light, and she followed after the boy into the hallway, shutting the door firmly behind her.


	4. Petition

**A/N: I made up a little Ionian lore in this chapter, which I hope will give you (courtesy of Waffleface) a nice break from the flood of Hinduism I've been hitting you with. I also decided to split up this chapter in interests of getting you your weekly hit faster. **

**Thank you for the reviews, and I hope you enjoy!**

Chapter 4: Petition

Karma's eyes were set and icy as she sprinted through the hallways, her overdress flapping wildly. Her will burned around her like a halo of pale fire as she moved with unearthly swiftness through archways and up stairs, the messenger barely able to keep up with a touch of her spirit putting new strength in his limbs. Internally, she was trying to recall everything she had ever learned about the Pit of Pallas and its tormented former warden.

The shrine around it was small, with only a antechamber before the heavily warded central room that housed the pit. All in all, the main chamber was about thirty five feet across, with the pit a smoking five foot circle in the center. She could shield anything and everything around her in a twenty feet radius against nearly any force for ten seconds, with time after that depleting her rapidly. If the children were all in one location, she should be able to protect them all from anything Varus could do until Irelia subdued him. However, there was the matter of whatever the Pit was producing to keep out the Will of the Blades. If she had to protect herself and Irelia from that, as well as the children, that would—

Karma shook her head firmly and focused on her breathing. One two three. She would do what had to be done. This was her duty.

"Well, good afternoon, beautiful," Twisted Fate hailed her from where he was leaning against the wall, directly outside the nexus of teleportation in the Institute.

Karma skidded to a halt and smoothed down her skirts, her powerful gaze piercing the man. He raised a heavy earthenware flask to her before taking a swig.

"Isn't it a little early in the morning for that?" she asked.

"Life's short, darling," Fate drawled, tapping his breast pocket knowingly. "Best not to waste a minute."

"Then be gone," Karma commanded, "for I am in a hurry."

"Don't be like that, Duchess," he purred, "I'm here to help you. My Gate can get you where you want to go in minutes, rather than you having to ride there the long way from the Placidium."

"May I dare ask you how you know of the reason for my haste?" she hissed.

"I told him, my Duchess," Lee Sin said calmingly, stepping out of the door behind Twisted Fate. "The Cardmaster is a friend, and we do need his help. The situation is dire."

Karma shot him a scathing glance before calming herself. She offered Twisted Fate the barest smile, though it did not soften her face.

"I will treat you fairly if you intend to aid us," she allowed.

"That's more like it, Rings," Twisted Fate chuckled, reaching over to pat her hair. He found his hand mysteriously repelled before it could touch her, however.

Karma's smile changed to something suspiciously like a smirk before her features returned to iron composure. Twisted Fate scowled and tugged his hat further over his eyes.

"Let's get on with this. One Gate to the former village of Ku'noh, coming up!"

Twisted Fate plucked a single golden card from his breast pocket and tossed it into the air. It expanded enormously, stretching in all directions until it floated, a thousand times its size, as a yellow shimmer in the air. Lee Sin nodded briefly and gratefully in his direction then stepped through the shimmer.

His whole body vanished with the faint smell of sulfur, except for one arm, that protruded from the midst of the mist with its fingers outstretched.

Karma, with utmost care and grace, put her hand in his and followed, bracing herself for the nauseating shock of teleportation. Her chakras hummed briefly, ready to stabilize her, but the passage of miles took less than a breath. Ionia opened up around her like a great green fan, like she'd simply walked through a…gate, she supposed. Lee Sin smiled at her and kissed the back of her hand lightly.

"Our land is beautiful, is she not, my Duchess?"

Karma smiled as she brought her hand back to her side, "Baraya-santi lead us, may these little flowers I see not be withered by that which I've come to stop the next year."

The monk and diplomat stood in the midst of a sizable clearing at the base of a gentle hill. The remnants of wooden house frames were covered by clinging ivy and thick grass, with a few shattered tiles occasionally visible amidst the patches of tansy.

Karma took a careful step forwards and squinted at the hill. The shrine itself was made of the purest white marble, but there was a haze around it, a strangely ominous heat shimmer in the air.

She realized that despite her lovely surroundings, she felt a little afraid.

"I think I see the problem," she murmured. "Where is Irelia?"

"Back in the trees," Lee Sin said, leading her into the budding karmals. They passed through dogwoods and figs, Karma separating the long grasses with a gentle push of will so they did not tear her overdress, for a few quiet minutes before they reached a small hollow at the base of an enormous garjan tree. There was a single tent nestled among the roots, embroidered with brilliant green thread with the image of a serpent, curling in on itself on each flap. Karma nodded at the image of Baraya-santi, the cloud-serpent goddess of peace, humility, and tenacity, feeling warmth rush over her at the sight of those endlessly deep, knowing eyes, set into the cloth as chips of emerald.

In the opening, Irelia, her dark hair sticking to her skin in the humidity, was speaking to a young boy.

"I understand that Freljord's in the middle of some trouble now," she snapped, "but if you think we can spare Duchess Karma for a diplomatic envoy right now then you are severely mistaken!"

"Yeah, yeah," the boy snorted. "You got some magic thingy at that big house thataway, right?"

"You could say that," Lee Sin murmured.

"Oh, heya Lee!" the boy called, turning around and waving energetically. He was wearing painfully blue shorts with tropical flowers strewn all over them, no shirt, and the hood of a thick white parka pulled over his head.

"What are you doing here, Nunu?" Karma asked, relaxing.

"Karma!" he squealed joyfully. "You're here! That's great! See, we want you to come on a trip to visit now that Bow and Boar and Bear've stopped fighting for harvest time!"

"A trip?"

"Yeah! You can come establish diplomatic relations with Bow's tribe for Ionia! And I guess you could go talk to Boar too, but I don't know why you would. She's always so aaaaangry."

Karma blinked, mentally matching names.

"Ah, yes. As Ionia's time of neutrality was so decisively brought to an end, now that we have recovered we should begin to send envoys to the major city states. But, surely it is not necessary for me to come myself?" she said firmly.

Nunu scuffed his foot on the ground. "Well, it's…there's a lot of trouble up there right now. Everybody knows you're good at fixing broken stuff, Karma. They've never been so close to open war before, and worse, it's started to get colder…"

"Colder?" Karma asked, frowning. She had been bracing herself for news of devastation wrought by Syndra.

"Yeah, usually it's started warming up by now, but it's actually started to get so Willump starting shivering if he goes up north too far. Boar's tribe has had to move to the border of Bow's lands because all their villages have frozen over. Plus, Bear says something's happening to the Gelid Vortex."

"Unusual," she murmured. "What is this Gelid Vortex, Nunu?"

"Well, it's like this big storm that stays in about the same place all the time, near this big sacred mountain. The Ursine think its special, they say it talks to their magic people," Nunu said confidently, scratching the parka's fur over his chin. "It's gotten too dangerous to approach in the past month or so. Bear says it keeps screaming about some woman. They think that it might be making everything so cold."

Oh, no, Karma thought. That was what she was afraid of.

"I am certain that after I've dealt with the trouble at Ku'noh I will be able to make a proper trip west to visit your people," she said graciously, "and right any wrongs mistakenly caused by Ionia."

Nunu scratched his head at this but seemed satisfied. "Sounds good to me, Karma! See you at the Institute when you're done with all this trouble here!"

A tremendous crash tore through the brushes as a huge, hairy white hand reached down from the foliage and plucked Nunu out of their midst. A happy grunt rang through the hollow, and a series of loud thuds began, until they slowly faded out towards the north.

"Thank the gods," Irelia moaned, rubbing her temples. "He never stops talking."

"Don't let Bayara-santi hear you calling me a god, my friend," Karma teased her, unable to stop her grin. She was finally back in Ionia, helping her people.

"Bayari-santi can stuff her tail under some rock as far as I'm concerned," Irelia scoffed. Karma raised an eyebrow, and the other woman relented slightly, tapping her forehead and pointing up at the first cloud she could find.

"Sorry, Bayari-santi," the Will of the Blades muttered. "Anyways, I suppose the messenger told you what was happening here?"

"I'd prefer you give me the details," Karma pressed gently.

"Well," Irelia began, stepping out of the shadow of the tent. "We got reports from villages nearby that war-sired children had started going missing. The Kinkou tracked what they could find to the Pit of Pallas, but they couldn't go near the hill without starting to panic. Shen managed to make it up the steps to the antechamber before he passed out, but Kennen and Akali were incapacitated as soon as they stepped inside that haze. Varus carried them out and warned them to stay away. He said he was enacting 'vengeance'."

"Varus," Karma sighed. "I thought he'd gotten better."

"You know spring's a bad time for him," Irelia said sadly. "We should have posted guards. If any of those children are hurt—"

"Don't think of that, my Lady," Lee Sin said firmly. "Focus on the now. The now you can affect."

Karma nodded. "We'll be ready next year. What matters is getting them out now. Have you visited the hill?"

Irelia's face went pale, the change shocking on her dark skin. "I have. I—it is hard, even now, to think of going back. I stayed outside the shimmer and tried to send in my blades but they...fell to the ground. It took all my will to drag them out."

"Do not worry," Karma said, the teardrops under her eyes glowing softly. "I will inspire you."

"This evening, then?" Lee Sin asked, raising his arms before sinking into a crouching stretch to one side, murmuring his own mantras as he moved fluidly through exercises he learned at the Shojin Monastery.

"I would wait until the heat of midday, tomorrow," Irelia said, though grief burned in her green eyes. "The Pit will be weakest then."  
"Then let us prepare and sleep," Karma said, "and I will pray at dawn for our success.


	5. Enticement

**Took a break from studying to write this for you. It kind of took root in my head and wrote itself, so I very much apologize for not getting to the battle in this chapter. Rest assured, it is coming. **

** Thank you for your patience and enjoy!**

Chapter 5: Enticement

There was only the one tent, and Irelia offered it to Karma without hesitation.

"No," Karma said gently, resting her hand on her friend's shoulder. "I have not yet faced the barrier and am thus more rested. Recover, Irelia. I will meditate by the Kun'oh Village's shrine, if it still exists."

Irelia smiled gratefully, her blade dipping behind her, and sat, cross-legged on the ground with a soft sigh.

"I brought provisions with me if you are hungry, Karma," she said, gesturing at a pack lumped in the corner of the embroidered tent.

"I think I shall walk by myself for a time, in the sunset," the Duchess said thoughtfully, looking out at the trees. "Perhaps Lee shall regale you with tales of our most recent matches?"

"I would be honored, my Duchess," the monk said, sinking to a crouch before Irelia with a friendly smile. "Will you be returning to us before night?"

"After the light has gone," Karma murmured, her eyes still far away, "I will return."

Irelia looked at her sharply, but said nothing. She and Lee Sin busied themselves with scraping a shallow bowl of dirt into the thick moss for the dry branches of their fire, and Karma slipped away, following a violet gleam between the knobbed trunks of the karmals. A few steps into the underbrush and the quiet of the forest came around her like a thick blanket, disturbed only by the liquid chirps of crickets and the sound of rustling leaves. She pushed her way through the ferns, calm, impassive, but ever-watching that purple flicker she could barely see—or perhaps sense—at the forest's edge.

After several minutes of walking in this way, the trees began to this and she saw the shores of a small lake, at the western end of the ruins of Kun'oh. Several, thick, flat stones were piled on a thin bar of sand that extended out about halfway between the village and the hill, and beside it knelt a man that appeared to be a statue of amethyst and ebony, with fine white hair and deathly pale skin on his bare chest, but the rest of his body covered in a thick, stony skin of corruption.

Without a quiver, Karma walked out of the forest and strolled towards him. He looked up and she felt his fiery eyes rest upon her like two spots of heat on her brow, but she knew better than to hesitate. Her boots sank slightly into the sand as she reached the curve of the shore and started making her way around it.

When she reached the beginning of the sand bar, Varus stood and a black, slippery sheet shot from his hand and formed his bow.

"**Come no further**, Karma," he pleaded, his voice alternatingly harsh with fury and quavering with fear.

"You will not hurt me, Varus," she soothed him. "Do not worry." Placing her feet carefully on the small spit, she approached close enough that she could smell his bitter scent, and reached up to take his hands.

His eyes, glassy in his tormented face, shut as her fingers brushed against the jagged coating of his skin. His bow shook wildly, its red string snapping as she smiled and closed her hands around his.

Karma squeezed lightly, wondering if he could feel it.

"Varus," she said softly, "are you quite well?"

His tattoos, bright lines of the Owl, writhed on his skin as his eyes opened and he looked down at her.

"**No forgiveness**," he warned her. "Do not try to stop me, Karma."

"I will not permit you to kill the innocent, Varus," she whispered. He snarled in rage, his ebony armor cracking and sliding over her fingers. The hideous touch of corruption slid across her soul, but it found no hold in her. It felt like sticky fingers of black oil, trying to mar the shine of her will.

"**My purpose is clear**," he hissed. "Is yours so easy to see?"

"You don't mean that, old friend," she said soothingly, looking into his face without flinching. His hands tightened around hers painfully, and she sent a sliver of will as silver gloves around them. "Your revenge does not extend so far as to these children. Save yourself for honoring the dead and helping the living rebuild."

"But in the spring their cries are so clear," Varus groaned, looking away from her and out over the lake. "I see them die a thousand ways, and those _Noxians_ slip away, laughing, hiding from me—**only cowards flee their fate! I will find them and my arrows will tear them from this world**!"

She squeezed his hands lightly and the unearthly tone died out of his voice.

"They are innocent," she repeated firmly. "Innocent, Varus. Do not stain your noble soul with this tragedy. Let them go."

"There is no salvation for me, Karma," he said softly, "you are Ionia. Do not trouble yourself with me. Keep us safe-**and so will I, in my own way."**

He was taller than she remembered when she had visited the newly appointed warden as a young girl. Then he had seemed so grand, so fierce and powerful, burning with heaven's light, a bow of fine-wrought gold in his steady hands, a handsome angel to keep the darkness at bay. But they were a decade apart, and such thoughts were—not for her.

"You are a hero, Varus," Karma insisted. "You are no child-killer. I need you to protect our people but not in this way."

"Please do not try to save them," he begged, the violet lines around his eyes quivering as he stared at her face. "**Pain is all I can give you**."

"It is my duty," she said simply.

"Then **do not touch me**!" he snarled, ripping his hands from her grasp. His plates crackled as he loomed above her, menacing in the dusk, his fingers beginning to twist and warp into claws. "Are you inhuman? Can you no longer feel repulsion?"

"You do not sicken me," she said sadly, letting her sleeves slip down over her hands. They ached from touching him, as if she'd dipped them into acid. "You are my friend, and I have so few of those that I cannot bear to lose them."

"**You are a fool, Karma**!" Varus growled, the shadows gathering thickly around him. Red crackles of energy lanced down his arms as his bow began to form.

"I will never stop hoping for you, Varus," the Duchess said calmly, one, two, three breaths. Her will surrounded her in a brilliant corona, tinged purple by her proximity to the Pit's corruption, enfolding her like the wings of Ulu the Owl. She could almost hear his mournful hoots resonating in the pulses of her chakras as tendrils of darkness began to wrap around her ankles. "I am the embodiment of inspiration and willpower. If I can stop the Pit of Pallas with only my devotion to my country, so too can you throw its influence back where it belongs. I believe in your salvation, my friend."

The Arrow of Retribution let out a sound like a sob as a slender lance of her will darted between them and plunged into his pale chest. Boiling anger thrashed against her questing thoughts, and fathomless grief dragged them down, but she was not deterred in searching for a chink in his terrible armor. And there it was, bright, shining, buried thickly under misery and shame and memories of his dead wife and children. She sucked in a startled breath, almost breaking her count.

She could not—but if it would weaken him on the morrow, then she must, for her powers would fail her if forced to shield too many. So Karma opened a gap in the violet flames and rose up on her toes, wrapping her hands firmly around his head, and pressed her mouth against his as firmly as she could.

Karma had never kissed a man but she was not blind to the world around her, and she noted with dispassionate clarity that she at least managed to stun him into silence. His hands fell to his sides, shaking. His mouth moved slightly, as if to protest, and she pressed harder, though she never felt his lips move against hers.

After she had judged enough time had passed she drew back and touched him lightly on the shoulder.

"Never falter, Varus," Karma said calmly, turned, and walked back towards the forest.

She did not hear him resume breathing until she was almost at the edge of the trees, and paused there to look back at him. He had one hand outstretched in her direction, as if he could catch her sleeve from so far away, and his eyes glowed like pale candles in the twilight.

"Onward," Karma whispered to herself, "always."

She slipped into the forest as the owls began to call.


	6. Medium

**Sigh. Why do I keep letting these ideas get ahead of me?**

** Seriously, guys, there's going to be a battle.**

** Eventually.**

** Thank you for the reviews and the support and I must give a particular shout out to SolarGryphon, whose enthusiasm made me change the plot to include his/her favorite character in the chapters to come.**

**If you've enjoyed this so far, you'll probably like Negotiating with a Rapier, which is a challengefic based on the original pairing for this story. And of course, good old A Light in the Desert is still being slowly updated, and it is quite a bit longer than this one is so far. It focuses on Nasus, who I personally think I write in a very similar way to Karma, and was my first fan fiction.**

** Now that that's done…on to the chapter! Enjoy!**

**Edit: I just realized I put half of this chapter in present tense. This has now been corrected.**

Chapter 6: Medium

The journey back was far different than the one she had made with Lee Sin. Karma faint slightly dizzy, sweat soaking through her overdress in the thick humidity. Her heart was pounding uncontrollably in her chest, despite her measured breaths. Just adrenaline, she told herself. Nothing to worry about.

She paused to look up at the newborn moon, and leaned against the trunk of a nearby karmal. Her hands slipped down the smooth bark as she took a shaky seat amongst the roots and rested her head against it. Karma's eyes slipped closed involuntarily and she shook her shoulders, reaching up to pull the three metal rings from her hair. She held them loosely in one hand and looked down at them.

Barely visible, etched into the metal, were a trio of figures. Karma ran her fingertips lightly over the rippling scales on the first before setting it aside and carefully, carefully placing the third atop it. The second she took in her hands and looked at, a subtle light beginning to emanate from the teardrops beneath her eyes.

The gentle feathers carved into the metal begin to shift and soften as she focused, and a long, low hoot from a nearby owl mixes musically with the sound of ethereal chimes that began to ring.

"Ulu," Karma greeted the Owl-Protector as he materialized before her as a young man clothed scantily in feathers, his eyes a wide and unblinking yellow, with brown hair that falls below his shoulders.

"Karma," Ulu said fondly, folding his legs into a lotus position and reaching out to take her hands. The god's fingers are rough and scarred, with wickedly sharp nails that rest lightly on her skin.

"I seek your wisdom, my god," Karma said quietly, "for my heart is troubled."

"I See," Ulu agreed, releasing one of her hands to tap the skin below one of his eyes. "Have you still not cleared Manipura, whose domain is growth, both spiritual and emotional?"

"No, my god," Karma said. "It is with difficulty, but I resolved myself with that chakra some time ago."

"So it is a trouble with Swadisthana or Muladhara," he cawed, patting the back of her hand. Karma felt heat rise in her face at the knowing look in the Owl-Protector's magical eyes, which was made only worse by the knowledge that Ulu could See every thought in her head.

Swadisthana, the Sacral chakra, and Muladhara, the Root chakra, both dealt with emotions that Karma had spent most of her life ignoring and suppressing, lest they mar her composure. Swadisthana, the orange-petalled lotus holding the moon, governed basic emotional needs, relationships, and pleasure. Mudladhara, the four red petals, was associated with sensuality and sexuality.

Needless to say, Karma viewed the idea of lowering herself to such base emotions with a certain degree of horror.

"Dearest Karma," Ulu crooned comfortingly, "you must know that you are the purest spiritual medium to live in Ionia since great Rukhasana, Binder of the Pits of Pallas. But the painful truth as I See it is that you cannot be complete without clarity in all your chakras—even those that you would prefer to ignore. Love does not weaken you, daughter of Ionia. It can be a source of strength, a source of will. Love compels men to heights they could never have imagined, forces completion of impossible tasks and fulfillment of unfathomable duties. And you are not undeserving of pleasure. Let it lighten the weight of your burden and ease your path."

"I…I will try, Owl-Protector," Karma said reluctantly.

"You must try," Ulu said firmly, tapping her chin and forcing her to look him in his huge eyes. "I See that you have a great and terrible enemy, who waits for you at the crown of the world and I tell you now that without all of the chakras, your hopes of defeating her are as slim as a feather. Go well, Karma. I believe in you."

He started to glow faintly, then seemed to pause. The light died away.

"Be kind to my lost son," Ulu asked hesitantly, if a god can hesitate. "I mourn for him and I would see him returned to the light, not kept from it under the shadow of my wicked sister."

"How would I do such a thing, Truthful Ulu?" Karma said, startled. The god's hands slipped from her grasp.

"A cause to serve," Ulu whispered. "Give him that, and he will come."

With a puff of feathers, the Owl-Protector vanished, and Karma was left with her still-thundering heart and steady breaths.

* * *

She slipped back into their camp with nary a whisper, but Lee Sin instantly looked up from the small, smokeless fire and smiled at her.

"Welcome back, my Duchess," the monk said cheerfully, gesturing to a spot on the roots beside him. Karma sat down with a grateful sigh and accepted the mangos he handed her without comment. Lee Sin produced a small knife from somewhere on his person and began quietly peeling the food for her.

"Where is Irelia?" she asked, watching scraps of bright orange peel flake away from his skillful work.

"She is already asleep," Lee Sin said with a sympathetic frown. "I imagine she is terribly weary from her exertions of these past few weeks. It is good that we are here to help her now."

"I spoke with Varus," Karma admitted, accepted a globe of mango and placing it lightly into her mouth. "He will oppose us tomorrow. I have hopes that I may be able to…shift his goals after the children are safe."

"You smell of spirits," Lee Sin noted.

"Ulu gave me cause to think that we would succeed," she said. "May it be so. It pains me to see my old friend in thrall to that goddess who shall remain nameless."

"I have every confidence in your abilities, my Duchess," Lee Sin soothed her. "What are your plans?"

"I think that I might ask Varus to escort me when I travel to Freljord," Karma said after a long pause for thought. "It would do him good to be away from the Pit and his sense of duty will help to compel him to protect me."

"He is a dangerous man, my Duchess," the monk warned. "I would fear for your safety if you placed it in his corrupted hands."

"Varus would never harm me," she countered with absolute certainty, "but I see your point. I would also request Irelia and yourself to accompany me, and give Ionia over to the keeping of the Kinkou for her safety in our absence. I trust Udyr to keep the forest free of any wrongdoers, and with their combined powers we should be able to be secure in the protection of our homeland while we are away."

"That is a formidable escort for a simple diplomatic mission," Lee Sin murmured.

"I fear that it is not as simple as it appears, Lee," Karma said. "With all the turmoil that has erupted there, and Syndra missing…well, I feel it is best to have staunch allies about myself, so that I may calm what troubles the land."

"I shall inform the monastery of my imminent departure when we are done here, then, my Duchess," he acquiesced. "Do rest now."

"Must you always look after me, Lee?" Karma complained, but there was lightness in her heart as the monk arranged his cloak and a few packs of supplies around her so she could meditate in warmth and comfort. Lee Sin touched her wrist briefly and then made his way to the other side of the fire to assume his own meditation.

Comforted, Karma let her mind slip into a pool of nothingness, spreading like a film of oil over the lands of Ionia, and her body slept.


	7. Tact

**Thank you for the reviews and follows and favorites. I particularly thank Grand Viper, who is always fun to talk to and who listened to a lot of my rambling about this chapter and the future of the story. Hopefully this twice-delayed chapter does not disappoint. Also, the previous chapter has been editing to correct some inconsistencies in tense. **

******Enjoy the climax of this particular arc of the story!**

Chapter 7: Tact

The sun dawned warm and early, and the moment its rays brushed Karma's face her mind returned to her body. Feeling returned first in her core, then spread to her fingers and toes, and once she had stretched and flexed she opened her eyes with a delighted smile.

She had missed extending her spirit over Ionia. The happy light of her people's souls were more nourishing to her will than any meal or bed. And as she had floated in the gentle bliss of the twilight of her mind, she had seen the Pit of Pallas and those within.

Varus, his soul an angry red, paced incessantly around the central chamber, and there were twenty tiny, flickering lights like the most fragile of matches, crushed together in the back. And in the center, an ominous presence that chuckled at her in a darkly lovely feminine voice as she surveyed it.

Karma laced her fingers together and thought of that last band in her hair. The metal was scarred with jagged lines and curves that clashed without harmony or sense, yet still radiated an aura of ugly power. Unease curled in her stomach, unpleasantly different from the sense of peace she had felt.

Her eyes snapped towards her left and she drew her fans from within her overdress. In three sharp motions, each perfectly in time with her breaths, she snapped the fans open, whirled them around her body, and thrust them towards her side. Her will thrummed through her fingers and a torrent of tiny spirit knives shot from between the folded paper and hummed through the air like hornets.

They splashed against an elegant, upraised hand. Karma turned slowly, her fans held before her defensively.

"Greetings and defiance, Demon-Goddess," she said calmly.

The woman that sat before her inclined her head. Her skin was pure, jet black, covered in blazing yellow swirls and runes in some ancient, furious tongue. Her eyes were pools of bright red blood, swirling endlessly beneath her long lashes, and her lovely mouth curved in a smile that revealed pointed teeth. She wore only a swatch of violet cloth draped over her hips and her nose, eyebrows, and lips were pierced with shining diamonds.

"Still afraid to speak my name, Duchess?" the woman asked with a cat's lazy smile.

"I honor Pallas, Ionia's Last Defender," Karma replied, her eyes never wavering from the woman's long, clawed fingers. "But to the Demon-Goddess I bring no offerings, nor give the gift of a name."

Pallas chuckled, her voice like sweet wine, and leaned forwards to whisper conspiratorially, "you know, Karma, you have my boy in quite the tizzy. He's ever so conflicted now, torn by grief and guilt and anger, desperate to release it, and I quite look forwards to the finish!"

Her voice dropped, low and deadly. "Do you really think you can steal my archer from me?"

"He was never yours to take, Demon-Goddess," Karma said firmly.

"Oh but he was!" Pallas cooed. "It was not duty that allowed him to protect Ionia, but my power—and as Ionia's Last Defender I am free to gift it to anyone I choose."

"Varus takes his grief too far," the Enlightened One warned. "I shall place him on a better path, so that your 'gift' does not consume him."

"Do you not fear my power, little mortal?" she asked.

"I know you will not kill me," Karma said without a shred of doubt in her voice, "and I cannot be corrupted."

"We shall see," Pallas murmured, her slender brows rising, "oh, indeed, we shall see, Duchess…"

The next breath of wind blew the Demon-Goddess away like smoke.

Karma sighed wearily and forced herself to wake up.

* * *

She felt a prickle of soreness as her eyes actually opened to a grim, rainy morning. She cursed herself briefly for allowing Pallas to penetrate her mental defenses, but the damage was already done. Strangely, she did not feel the crushing weariness or disquieting doubt that the Demon-Goddess surely had the opportunity to plant in her mind. Perhaps, then, she had really only invaded Karma's mind to speak?

"Not the best day for attacking Varus in his home," Irelia muttered sourly by the ashes of their small fire. Her blade hung behind her back, its razor sharp edges glistening with water.

"Conviction, my friend," Karma said, standing and stretching. Her robe was soaked with mud and she performed a sort of mental shimmy that involved her gathering in her will and expelling it from her skin forcefully. Mud and sweat flew from her and back into the forest, and her hair shimmered with pale green fire for a moment as tangles unraveled themselves and her headbands adjusted themselves.

Irelia raised an eyebrow. "That's handy."

"I feel appearances will be important," Karma said. Irelia laughed, gesturing briefly at her brilliant crimson armor and impeccably polished blade.

"Those are the only things I bother keeping neat," she said, tugging a few leaves out of her hair. Her hands left smears of mud and plant matter whenever they brushed her face.

Lee Sin cracked his neck and held up his hands defensively when the two women looked at him. "Shaved heads tend to take care of themselves."

Their shared chuckles brought light to the gloom, if only for a moment.

* * *

The wide marble steps stretched up the hill in from of them as Irelia, Karma, and Lee Sin walked carefully through the ruins of Kun'oh. Karma spared a glance to the small sand bar on the lake before she came to the base of the steps and the beginning of the hazy shimmer around the temple.

The closer they had gotten, the greater a sense of terrible, looming dread had pressed down on them. This close, it was almost overpowering, trying to force Karma's lungs to falter in their steady rhythm. But Irelia had prepared her and with her ingrained discipline that steady one two three beat went on without a pause.

The three Ionians paused at the very edge of the barrier.

"Are you ready, Karma?" Lee Sin asked, his clenched fists beginning to flicker with dragonfire.

"Always," Karma said, closing her eyes.

A faint light began to shine from the ruby teardrops on her cheeks and the gems in her headbands as the Duchess let her spirit expand from her body and wrap around her companions. She saw herself and her surroundings as if she was floating slightly above them, and her chakras appeared as a line of brightly colored orbs, pulsing in time with her heartbeat. Karma twitched her fingers and green flame shot down from the white crown of Sahasrara to meet violet Ajna, and her shield firmed around them.

"Go," she murmured, and Irelia led the way, her blade splitting twice to form four swords that floated around them protectively. They ran up the steps, Karma only dimly away of her body's movement as she forced the flame down from Ajna to blue Vishuddha in her throat. Dim wraiths appeared around them as her shield flared with long tongues of energy and obliterated them.

Her struggle to connect with green Anahata was the same as the struggle to leap from logical to emotional thought.

"Not a downside," Ulu whispered in her mind. "Think of emotions as different rather than clouded. It is a different way of Seeing."

The steps opened to a wide, pillared courtyard before the temple. Huge doors, emblazoned with designs of chains and protective wards, lay in pieces, the wood smashed and iron hinges shattered. An arrow shot through the gap and Lee Sin struck it to the ground with a shout. She dared not use her shield to protect them from physical threats, 'lest the power of Pallas overpower her. Even now she could feel it like a crushing weight, filling her throat with sand and her feet with lead. She struggled onwards, fighting for control, and she saw Irelia send her blades shooting through the ruined doors as they leaped through. The central chamber was vast and impenetrably dark, cutting the light from the outside like a knife at the edge of its smooth obsidian tiles. The Pit in the center smoldered like the fires of Hell, and braziers were set along the sides to fill the room with smoky light. Varus stood before them, menaced by the blades, his arms writhing as corruption bubbled over his skin and his bow drawn. Karma instantly sensed the children, huddled in a dark corner, their lives so weak and faint that her spiritual senses cried out in pity and fear, and that bridged the gap separating her from Anahata.

The Heart Chakra shone and healthy, green light filled the room, burning from every inch of Karma's skin. She was vaguely aware of herself mumbling chants in Old Ionian to maintain her focus as she sank into a lotus position on the floor.

"**Face oblivion!**" Varus roared and dark tendrils rose from the Pit behind him and shot out to snare legs and arms. Irelia's blades shrieked in fury and spun around her in a sharp-edged whirlwind as she fought her way towards him, slicing tentacles of corruption into bits of black slime as she staggered towards him. Lee Sin remained beside Karma, blasts of dragonfire shooting from his fists as he smashed the chains of corruption that shot towards her and shattered arrows with his bare hands as Varus began to fire, an unending stream filling the air in front of him with death. But no arrow could move faster than the Blind Monk, and Lee Sin's sweeping kicks and strikes protected Karma from any harm.

Irelia hissed as arrows struck joints in her ceremonial armor, but abandoned her blades' attempts to protect her in favor of shooting them all towards Varus. His fingers on his bow trembled as foot long shards of metal embedded themselves from his knees to his shoulders, but the corruption swelled in a black wave and threw them to the ground. It had lasted long enough for Irelia to reach him and he had to roll to the side to avoid being decapitated by a huge swing of her main blade. He blocked her next swipe with his bow and forced her backwards with a surge of darkness from the Pit at his back long enough to fire a hail of arrows at Lee Sin and Karma and stumble away from a furious Irelia.

His eyes glowed with his hate and Karma felt a flicker of unease even as she fought to connect Anahata with Manipura, last of her unlocked chakras. Suddenly, a renewed wave of fear and loathing collided with her shield and Karma choked, her body's hands flying over her head to try and stop it from impacting Irelia or Lee Sin. Irelia seemed unaffected, but Lee Sin froze mid punch and took three arrows to the shoulder.

Dimly, Karma was aware of an arrow that would now take her in the throat.

She looked up with her spiritual senses to focus on Varus' face, even as she saw him realize her imminent death. She could withdraw her shield to save herself, but then Pallas would have Irelia and Lee Sin—and that could not be. Instead, she threw all of her will into making it as firm around them as possible, in hopes that they could escape. But yet, she kept a thin skin around herself, because she hoped—

"No!" Varus shouted, and as the tip of the arrow touched her skin it turned as soft as jelly and splattered harmlessly against her skin.

Karma smiled and let her shield fall away from herself, from Lee Sin, and from Irelia, and sent it to cover the Pit of Pallas even as she reached Manipura in a burst of glorious golden light.

The darkness _screamed_ and Varus collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut as jade-colored flame burst into existence above the mass of swarming shadows in the Pit, the aura of fear falling harmlessly away. The arrows still in the air disintegrated and Lee Sin rubbed his shoulder gingerly.

"Karma?" Irelia whispered, halting in the midst of a swing that would have cut Varus in half.

"Take the children and leave this place," Karma said calmly in a voice quite unlike her own. She clamped her shield down as firmly as she could, leaving no gap for Pallas' wicked influence to escape, and breathed steadily against the agonizing power battering against her will. Pallas shrieked in fury, her beautiful voice distorting as she fought desperately against Karma's discipline.

Karma was aware of Irelia and Lee Sin rushing to the children before she left her body entirely. The threads of mortality were weaknesses for Pallas to attack and she could afford none.

She was closer to death than she had even been when reaching for Sahasrara, and it gave her strength.

Time passed by without her noticing but when she managed to tear her spiritual senses away from containing Pallas she saw that the temple was empty and her head was in Varus' lap. His chest heaved but no sound passed from his lips, and his tears dripped onto her face.

"Don't do this, Karma," he begged.

"If I hold her, then you will be free," her soul murmured. Her lips did not move.

"I am beyond redemption," Varus said. "Let her be satisfied with me, and you can leave this place!"

"But you see, Varus," Karma replied. "Pallas cannot afford to keep me here. She knows Ionia needs me, and she does not dare incapacitate me or kill me. But I am willing to remain and keep her trapped and powerless, and because she cannot break that will she must deal with me."

"Damn you, medium!" Pallas hissed, melting out of the darkness like a nightmare. Her teeth were bared and her eyes burned, but chains of Karma's will wrapped around her so thickly that her sleek black skin was barely visible.

"You know what I want, Pallas," Karma said calmly.

"You risk much on my duty as the Last Defender!" the Demon-Goddess spat.

"Yet here you are," Karma pointed out, "because that duty is a part of you and you cannot deny it. I need Varus, Pallas. He can still serve Ionia without your fingers in his mind."

"He is mine!" Pallas roared.

"No," Karma said. "The moment he stopped his arrow, he was free. I am the true heart of Ionia, Pallas, and he knows that, within himself. He is still a guardian, and my cause is just."

"I would have stopped it from killing you," Pallas snarled.

"You would," Karma acknowledged. "But he did first."

The Demon-Goddess leapt for Karma's body and Varus, quite without thinking, swept her up in his arms and jerked her away. He had been listening quite silently and his reaction was sudden.

"No!" Pallas shrieked. "No!"

"I will return your power to you," Karma said, "and leave here, with Varus. Ionia's safety is threatened in Freljord, and I need him to guard me as I travel there. He will still use his connection to you to fight, but you will refrain from using it to control him. In turn, if people see that your power is no longer harmful, perhaps more will seek to serve you."

Pallas hissed but bowed her head. With an effort of will, Karma let her shield dissipate, and flinched from a wave of nausea as Pallas' power returned to the temple. But after a moment, it faded to an unpleasant feeling in the back of her mind.

"Thank you, Pallas," she said with her own mouth as her spirit returned to her body.

"There will come a time when you need the third god of Ionia," the Demon-Goddess whispered bitterly. "When you must beg for my help, I will laugh, pure one."

"I offer homage to all my gods," Karma said. "Pallas the Last Defender is one of them, and I will not regret asking for her aid."

"You think you can change me, medium?" the goddess challenged her even as she faded back into the darkness.

Karma blinked her own eyes and sat up. Varus, puzzlement on his pale face, offered her his hand, which she used to haul herself to her feet. She smoothed her overdress and took three steady breaths.

"Never fear change," she said to both Varus and Pallas. "As Ionia changes, so have I—and so will you."

Then she smiled, just at the archer, and took three steady breaths.

"Would you like to come with me to Freljord, Varus?" she asked. "It seems that there is some significant civil unrest and it may be dangerous."

"I would be honored, my Duchess," he said hoarsely.

And they left the temple together.


	8. Author's Note

Dear beloved readers,

I worry so much about leaving you neglected for all this time. I am especially terrified that I might have forgotten to respond to your reviews, and if I did you should private message me and tell me to get my act together.

Let me explain, if I can, why I have been neglecting you. I am a senior in high school and college applications are coming soon-very soon for me, as I am going Early Decision. There is a book I have been working on for almost 6 years, and I want to have it finished and published before November 1. Therefore, I have been spending all my time and energy writing and editing so it can be ready for that crucial deadline. Trying to update Permafrost Diplomacy AND Negotiating With a Rapier AND A Light in the Desert is just too much for me right now. But after November 1, I plan to take a nice, relaxing break from original fiction...and return to fan fiction.

Rest assured, my stories ARE being continued and ARE NOT forgotten. I have been playing Evelynn a lot lately and it makes me desperately want to write about her. But I just can't spare the creative energy right now.

So, I must beg for your forgiveness right now, and ask your patience. I will be back...2 months from today. And I will be posting a link to my story when it is published, so you can see what I've been wasting all my time on :)

Endless love,

Eyowyn


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